Puroresu Weekly Recap

Added 31/05/2018 by Luke Hickey

Welcome to what I hope will be a successful column here at The Indy Corner. Here I’ll recap news and events from promotions in Japan, I’m going to aim for Thursday to Thursday for now but this may change as the weeks go on. I will try to be as inclusive as possible so I can bring a wide range of puro to hopefully existing fans and new alike.

Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi were announced to be next in line for challenging the All Asia Tag Team Champions, Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata.
In a Jumbo Tsuruta Memorial Match, Jun Akiyama & Osamu Nishimura def. Takao Omori & Masanobu Fuchi, plenty of moves of Jumbo Tsuruta were used in a match to mark 18 years since his passing. In a build-up continuing from Champions Carnival, it was announced KAI & TAJIRI will challenge Sai & James for the World Tag belts in Kobe. This event also saw Jake Lee return from injury. The main talking point was the rematch of this year’s Champions Carnival final, which Naomichi Marufuji won at the expense of Triple Crown Champion, Kento Miyahara. This time the Triple Crown Championship was on the line, and in another classic, Kento Miyahara got the win.
With 1 win each, surely this isn’t it?

Notable talking points come from the GHC title defences on this show, but by all reports, this could be NOAH’s best show of the year. Hopefully something they can build upon. Also keen for them to get on the streaming front, as now most popular Japanese puro companies are in it or moving towards it.

GHC Tag Team Championship: GO-KAI, Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya fall at the first hurdle as former champions, The Aggression, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya. These guys are ones to watch, would love to see them clash with Kazusada Higuchi & Daisuke Sekimoto who are the KO-D Tag Team Champions.

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takashi Suigura successfully defends his crown against Naomichi Marufuji. After the match respect was shown between the two competitors, Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya will have a match to decide who will challenge for the title next.

This episode is notable for the appearance of Meiko Satomura, owner of Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling and current Fight Club Pro Champion, she was in a rumble to earn a Right to Challenge, Anytime that would set up a future KO-D Openweight match.

Meiko Satomura, Tetsuya Endo, Mizuki Watase, MAO and Antonio Honda’s envelopes all contained Right to Challenge, Anytime prizes, which must be cashed in by October and they must defend their right on every show they appear on until then. Ken Ohka’s envelope contained a punishment which will likely be revealed on next week’s episode. Kazusada Higuchi pinned Kota Umeda to become Shigehiro’s next challenger.

On the BASARA ‘VAJRA 73 ~REIGN SUPREME~’, 12/07/2018 Shinjuku Face show, which will be the final of the Heaven Summit Itadaki, Naomichi Marufuji is scheduled to appear. Naomichi Marufuji was previously KO-D Tag Champion with HARASHIMA until their defeat to SekiGuchi.

BASARA is under the DDT Universe, so Naomichi Marufuji was probably booked via DDT rather than through BASARA owner/booker, Isami Kodaka.

Another affiliate of DDT, which also gets shown on DDT Universe is the Joshi promotion Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, whose Tokyo Princess Cup starts this weekend on 03/06/2018. In other TJPW news, the trio of Yuka Sakazaki, Shoko Nakajima and Miyu Yamashita will be in Chikara’s King Of Trio’s tournament as Tokyo Joshi Freedom Fighters.

In other Joshi news, Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling has a new English twitter @sendaiglobal, and has announced that they will be soon unveiling a VOD site. Io Shirai has reportedly signed with WWE, her last dates with Stardom were announced on twitter which you can read HERE